Friday, 10 January 2014

Media Quotes of the Week: From pardon plea for Edward Snowden to tributes to Simon Hoggart

Guido Fawkes backs Edward Snowden

Guido Fawkes calls for Edward Snowden to be pardoned: "His motivation was ideological and principled – it has cost him his
personal freedom and his career. People who Guido would normally expect
to side with the cause of liberty have focused on the medium not the
message – because it was Alan Rusbridger’s Guardian that broke the story they have got their backs up."

The Guardian in a leader on Edward Snowden: "Mr Snowden gave classified information to journalists, even though he
knew the likely consequences. That was an act of some moral courage.
Presidents – from Franklin Roosevelt to Ronald Reagan – have issued
pardons. The debate that Mr Snowden has facilitated will no doubt be
argued over in the US supreme court. If those justices agree with Mr
Obama's own review panel and Judge Richard Leon in finding that Mr
Snowden did, indeed, raise serious matters of public importance which
were previously hidden (or, worse, dishonestly concealed), is it then
conceivable that he could be treated as a traitor or common felon? We
hope that calm heads within the present administration are working on a
strategy to allow Mr Snowden to return to the US with dignity, and the
president to use his executive powers to treat him humanely and in a
manner that would be a shining example about the value of whistleblowers
and of free speech itself."

Assange: 'Unchallenged by BBC'

Stephen Glover in the Daily Mail on Julian Assange's contribution on the Today programme edited by singer P.J. Harvey:
"I would have qualms about this morning’s circus even if Assange were
due to be interrogated by John Humphrys in his most aggressive
Rottweiler mode. As it is, I am aghast that he should be allowed to
maunder on unchallenged. Would P. J. Harvey be given complete editorial
freedom if she wanted to parade a highly controversial politician on the
run from the law? I

Trinity Mirror managing director North West and Manchester
Steve Anderson-Dixon on plans to launch a Sunday edition of the Liverpool Echo, as reported byPress Gazette: "The Liverpool Echo is a strong and respected
brand. It has a connection with its audience that is unparalleled
across Merseyside. We already have in place brilliant local journalists, an
excellent local sales force and a well-established readership which we
believe will welcome the Echo seven days a week."

Daily Mail in a leader: "Mr
Cameron may claim to be a defender of free speech and a Press that has
been free for 300 years. In reality, however, isn’t he the worst kind of
fairweather friend?"

@BBCr4today: Trevor Kavanagh: “I gave Twitter up in the new year and I feel liberated..I didn’t read a book for six months..."

Daily Telegraph in a leader: "The 2010 leaders’ debates [on television] were perhaps the most exciting aspect of that year’s
general election – and there is no good reason why they should not return in
2015. Unscripted confrontations undermine some of the politicians’ ability
to control the agenda. In recent years, election campaigns have become
obsessively choreographed – a series of photo opportunities with pretty
locations and hand-picked party activists."

Philip Johnston in the Telegraph on the Leveson Inquiry: "Any disinterested observer looking back on those hearings two years ago must
be astonished at how out of touch they were with the modern media world. The
idea that the press retains the power that it had when Baldwin denounced it
in the 1930s – or even what it had in the 1990s – is fanciful, with many
newspapers struggling to survive and other platforms growing in reach and
influence. Just before Christmas, the Liverpool Post became the latest
casualty of this market fragmentation, closing after 158 years in print.
Moreover, tasteless behaviour and flagrant breaches of the law are far
easier to find on social media outlets such as Twitter and Facebook or
internet giants like Google and Yahoo, yet these were not covered by the
inquiry."

Corinna Schumacher, the wife of ex-Formula 1 driver Michael Schumacher, appeals for privacy and for
reporters to leave the clinic where he is being treated following a skiing accident in the French Alps, as reported by BBC News: "It is important to me that the doctors and the
hospital be left in peace to work - please trust their statements and
leave the clinic...please leave our family in peace".

Simon Hoggart

Alan Rusbridger on Simon Hoggart who died this week: "Simon was a terrific
reporter and columnist – and a great parliamentary sketch writer. He
wrote with mischief and a sometimes acid eye about the theatre of
politics. But he wrote from a position of sophisticated knowledge and
respect for parliament. A daily reading of his sketch told you things
about the workings of Westminster which no news story could ever convey.
He will be much missed by readers and his colleagues."

Ben Fenton
‏@benfentonon Twitter: "Tragically early death of
Simon Hoggart, last of a heroic generation of sketch writers and a man
you bought a paper for & who made you care."

From the Guardian'sobit on Simon Hoggart, about his early days on the Guardian in Manchester: "He once earned a famous reproach for writing too highfalutin a match
report of a game between Chelsea and Blackpool, evoking Greek tragedy
and, specifically, the blinding of Oedipus ('Will you tell me one
thing?' a grizzled night editor asked him,'were they playing with a
ball or a discus?')."

About Me

I am a freelance journalist based in the UK and was deputy editor of Press Gazette, the journalists' magazine, from 1993 until 2006. I want to give an independent view on media matters.
You can contact me with stories, ideas and comments by email at jon.slattery369@btinternet.com You can also follow me on Twitter @jonslattery